Reviewed by:

• The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected by Edwin Wong
• Jayetta Slawson

The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected is valuable for scholars, directors, and playwrights, as Wong sweeps through centuries of theoretical models and classic texts on tragedy and the tragic hero to arrive at a contemporary performance theory he calls risk theatre. In the book’s nine chapters and four parts, Wong posits tragic heroes as characters who meet their fate in unhappy confrontations within the vernacular of gambling thrills and high-stake consequences, intertwined with commodification pushed up against life’s hidden value. He calls the concept putting “a modern face on an ancient art” (xxvi). The ideas provide a fresh, distinctive method for analyzing and staging tragedies.

Wong begins by noting three-part structures and cycles that have informed [End Page 265] human civilizations (e.g., Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government; and life’s journey of birth, growth, and decay). He then proposes his own three-part structure for his risk model (temptation, wager, and cast) or, as he calls it, a “troika of parts” (11). As he moves from his opening to describe and advance his case, he becomes exceedingly invested in this notion of three-part structures. Wong next posits the “arrangement” of his troika of parts: gradual tragedy, backloaded tragedy, and frontloaded tragedy (31). He spells out three guidelines that, if followed, “may result in enduring and memorable creations” (53). He enumerates three forms of risk theatre: standalone, parallel-motion, and perpetual-motion (55–56). He uses his vast knowledge of literature to instruct on “commonplaces of tragedy,” which achieve their effects through “a combination of the three c’s: confidence, capacity, and compulsion” (142).

The author’s primary purpose in adopting a gambling analogy is to grapple with three primary questions: What is tragedy? (chapters 1–3). Why is tragedy what it is? (chapters 4–5). How is it composed? (chapters 6–7). The book then concludes with musings on tragedy’s uniqueness and on the applications of risk theory in other genres and in modernity (chapters 8–9). Wong lays out numerous case studies throughout the book to test his assumptions and reinterpretations of this long-studied genre.

While clearly knowledgeable about an extensive array of topics across time such as economic structures and unintended consequences of a character’s actions, there are lengthy quotes, sometimes too many, from great literary works that he analyzes and then applies his concepts. The writing itself is a mix of conversational, yet philosophical, gestures as Wong connects back to the beginning, middle, and end terminology of Aristotle’s Poetics and to texts such as The Iliad. He makes stops throughout literary history with writers from Shakespeare and O’Neill. He often takes on a prodigious tone in his musings:

“Tragedy makes its characters suffer so that their lives may be transformed into works of art” (29).

“Tragedy, I therefore propose, is an economics of the final resort that examines the opportunity cost involved in being alive” (105).

Wong’s framing of the structure of a tragic plot could parallel, in terminology at least, how others, such as Freytag, have thought about the chronology of a literary plot. In Wong’s sphere, a tragic character is ushered through phases of a predicament and downfall. In the initial phase of his model, the hero is tempted in spectacular events that draw spectators into the action (11–13) (parallel to the inciting incident and rising action). In the middle section, heroes lay [End Page 266] everything on the line after determining “the price they are willing to pay to achieve their desire’s goal” while also spending time in vacillation and strategizing about the hand they hold (16–19) (parallel to a series of conflicts pushing the action forward). The hero’s final point of no return is when the die has been cast and the “Rubicon is crossed,” followed by an aftermath of loss and...

审核人：

• 悲剧的风险剧场模型：赌博，戏剧和意外事件（由Edwin Wong设计）
• 杰耶塔·斯劳森（Jayetta Slawson）

“黄祸剧场模型：赌博，戏剧和意想不到的事”对于学者，导演和剧作家来说都是有价值的。冒险剧院。在这本书的九章和四部分中，Wong认为悲剧性的英雄是那些在赌博的快感和高风险的后果中，在不快乐的对抗中遇到命运的角色，与商品化交织在一起，从而推翻了生命的隐藏价值。他称这个概念为“在古代艺术上增添现代气息”（xxvi）。这些想法为分析和处理悲剧提供了一种新颖而独特的方法。

黄首先指出，已获悉三部分结构和周期[尾页265]人类文明（如父，子，圣灵;政府的行政，立法和司法部门，以及出生，成长的人生旅途中，和衰变）。然后，他提出了自己的三部分结构进行了风险模型（诱惑，赌，和投），或者如他所说，“多部件的三驾马车”（11）。随着他从开放到描述和发展自己的案例的过程，他变得对这种三部分结构的概念投入了极大的精力。皇未来的posits了他的部分三驾马车“安排”：逐步悲剧，backloaded悲剧，并优先投放悲剧（31）。他阐述了三项指导原则，如果遵循这些指导原则，“可能会导致持久和令人难忘的创作”（53）。他列举了三种风险剧院形式：独立，平行运动和永久运动（55-56）。他利用自己丰富的文学知识来指导“悲剧的共同之处”，“悲剧的共同之处”是通过“三个c的组合：信心，能力和强迫”来实现的（142）。

作者采用赌博类比的主要目的是解决三个主要问题：什么是悲剧？（第1-3章）。为什么悲剧是什么？（第4-5章）。它是如何组成的？（第6-7章）。然后，本书以悲剧的独特性为结尾，并以风险理论在其他类型和现代性中的应用作为结束语（第8-9章）。Wong在整本书中都进行了大量案例研究，以检验他对这一经过长期研究的体裁的假设和重新解释。

尽管很清楚地了解跨时代的广泛主题，例如经济结构和角色动作的意外后果，但他分析并运用他的概念后，却引用了许多伟大的文学作品中的冗长的引用，有时甚至过多。当Wong回到亚里士多德的《诗学》的开端，中间和结尾术语以及诸如《The Iliad》之类的文字时，写作本身就是对话性但哲学性的手势的组合。在整个文学史上，他与莎士比亚和奥尼尔的作家息息相关。他常常在沉思中表现出惊人的语调：

“悲剧使它的角色受苦，以便他们的生活可以变成艺术品”（29）。

“因此，我认为悲剧是最后的经济学，它考察了生存所涉及的机会成本”（105）。

Wong对悲剧情节结构的构架至少可以在术语上与其他人（例如Freytag）如何思考文学情节的年代学相类似。在Wong的领域中，悲剧性人物经历了困境和衰落的各个阶段。在他的模型的初始阶段，英雄会在引人入胜的事件中被吸引，这些事件将观众吸引到行动中（11-13）（与煽动性事件和上升行动平行）。在中间部分，英雄在确定“他们愿意为实现其愿望的目标而付出的代价”之后，将所有东西放在[End Page 266]上，同时还花时间进行动摇并为他们所握的手制定策略（16-19） （平行于一系列冲突推动行动前进）。英雄最后的不归之路是当铸模被抛弃并且“ Rubicon越过”时，接着是损失和...的后果。